DocuSign Envelope ID: 848AACF9-2F6F-4CAE-A277-8763F0334846 APRIL 2020 – MARCH 2021 **Trustees Annual Report and Accounts Bushbury Hill Community Action Group 01 April 2020 – 31 March 2021** Charitable Incorporated Organisation Charity Number 1169727 pg. 1 DocuSign Envelope ID: 848AACF9-2F6F-4CAE-A277-8763F0334846 APRIL 2020 – MARCH 2021 |**Charity Name:**|Bushbury Hill Community Action Group (BHCAG)| |---|---| |**Charity Registration Number:**|1169727| |**Registered Office:**|14 Kempthorne Avenue| ||Low Hill| ||Wolverhampton| ||WV10 9JG| |**Board of Trustees:**|Diane Lewis – Chair| ||Kate Spilsbury - Treasurer| ||Karen Williams| ||Derek Newton| ||Denise Newton| |**Auditors:**|GNC Accounting Services Ltd| pg. 2 DocuSign Envelope ID: 848AACF9-2F6F-4CAE-A277-8763F0334846 APRIL 2020 – MARCH 2021 ## **Structure, Governance and Management** Bushbury Hill Community Action Group (BHCAG) is a resident led voluntary and community organisation that established in 2013, and in 2016 became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The board of trustees consists of a minimum of three and maximum of twelve trustees. Bushbury Hill Community Action Group actively seek to recruit new trustees. ## Eligibility for trusteeship - (a) Every charity trustee must be a natural person. - (b) No individual may be appointed as a charity trustee of the CIO: - if he or she is under the age of 16 years; or - if he or she would automatically cease to hold office under the provisions of clause [12(1)(e)]. - (c) Every trustee must be: - A resident of Bushbury Hill or - Work in Bushbury Hill (including local services) or - Operate a business in Bushbury Hill or - Operates a business that benefits a significant number of people in Bushbury Hill Apart from the first charity trustees, every trustee must be appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the charity trustees must have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO. ## **Recruitment and Training of Trustees** Where required support is provided to enable people who wish to become a trustee to gain the appropriate skills and knowledge to carry out this role. Following appointment new trustees are provided with a copy of the current version of the constitution/rules, and a copy of the CIO’s latest Trustees’ Annual Report and statement of accounts, along with the Charities Commission latest version of a Trustee Guidance to ensure they are aware of their responsibility as a trustee. pg. 3 DocuSign Envelope ID: 848AACF9-2F6F-4CAE-A277-8763F0334846 APRIL 2020 – MARCH 2021 ## **Overview of Bushbury Hill Community Action Group:** Its aim is to improve the quality of life of all residents of Bushbury Hill and the surrounding areas. BHCAG work alongside a number of partner organisations within the area, and have been part of the development and delivery of key projects. Bushbury Hill is an area that is part of the suburb of Bushbury, Wolverhampton, West Midlands and is the most densely populated ward of Wolverhampton. The area is within the top 5% on the indices of deprivation and as such, the Objects of BHCAG are… 1. To promote for the benefit of the inhabitants of Bushbury Hill and the surrounding area the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupation of individuals who have need of such facilities by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disablement, financial hardship or social and economic circumstances or for the public at large in the interests of social welfare and with the object pf improving the condition of life of the said inhabitants. 2. The relief of those in need, by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage. ## **Overview from Chair of the Board of Trustees:** _This year started at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and proved to be one of our most challenging yet, but a challenge we have yet again risen to and pulled together even further as a community. We are proud to have worked with so many organisations thus enabling us to continue to support our most isolated, vulnerable tenants throughout this time._ _Going forward we aim to recruit new members to support on-going and daily activities and help develop new ideas into fruitful, rewarding projects that will benefit people in our local area._ _The focus of BHCAG going forward is to continue to prioritise marketing and publicity, trying to get the group’s name and ambitions out into the estate and wider local community._ _Diane Lewis_ _Chair_ pg. 4 DocuSign Envelope ID: 848AACF9-2F6F-4CAE-A277-8763F0334846 APRIL 2020 – MARCH 2021 ## **Activity: -** **Bushbury Buddies:** As a volunteer led local charity, we have been running a befriending service called Bushbury Buddies across the local neighbourhoods for 3 years in response to the already high levels of loneliness and isolation in our community. Our community falls within the top 5% on the indices of deprivation and in the top 2 for health, disability and income affecting older people. On a daily basis prior to the Covid-19 crisis many people and in particular older people within the area live ‘hand to mouth’, meaning they merely survive on what little income they do have and cannot plan anything or do anything outside of that remit. There is no money for leisure or recreation and this means that many people have become very lonely and isolated. As a consequence of social isolation, a person’s circle of trusted people becomes very few, as they do not socialise with neighbours or friends and often have little family to rely on, meaning that when something like Covid-19 happens they have little to no one to turn to. With the announcement of lockdown staff and volunteers quickly mobilised to ensure that those members of the community with whom we already had contact were provided for. Initially we focussed on ensuring everyone’s basic needs were met. Volunteers were delivering shopping and fetching medicines. We then began switching our normal face: face befriending service to telephone and for a few weeks this was ok, but as the scale of the Covid-19 crisis became apparent, and with many of our members shielding or in a vulnerable category we realised we needed to do something more. Our capacity was initially reduced as some of our volunteers were shielding and demand was growing as more and more people needed help. Referrals began to flood in like never before with the situation pushing even those most resistant to accepting help to reach out. Referrals came via self-referral, friends and neighbours and also local services providers (housing organisations and social services). Bushbury Hill Community Action works in partnership with a number of other local community organisations including Bushbury Hill Estate Management Board, Low Hill Community Centre, Big Venture Centre, Park Village Community Centre and the Women’s & Family Resource Centre as part of the WV10 Consortium. In partnership with volunteers from across the WV10 patch we were able to ensure that all our members and new referrals were provided for and also rolled out a project called ‘Treat & Chat’. pg. 5 DocuSign Envelope ID: 848AACF9-2F6F-4CAE-A277-8763F0334846 APRIL 2020 – MARCH 2021 The ‘Treat & Chat’ scheme was exactly that; volunteers used our mini bus to deliver a weeklytreat (often a hot meal) to the doorstep of elderly/lonely/vulnerable members of our community, and then had a socially distanced door step chat at the same time. Food was labelled with contact details of local people/volunteers who they could call for further help if required. This gave us the opportunity to check on their wellbeing, it lifted their spirits and ensured they knew that someone cared. We were then able to secure funding through the Power to Change Covid-19 fund and we were then able to expand this provision providing activities for people to do at home that they could the share via photos or by holding it up on their doorstep for us to see. This service proved to be a life line for some local people and we have been able to continue this by collaborating with Big Local Venture Centre to ensure we maintained service delivery throughout this difficult year. BHCAG members dressing up for street walks to cheer up our community during lockdown Local people were given wool to make red and black poms poms which was the turned into giant poppies to display for Remembrance Sunday. The service was streamed online and people could watch in the street. **Life after the Foodbank:** Just prior to the start of this year BHCAG secured funds for a project called ‘Life after the Foodbank’. This initiative is being delivered in partnership with the Big Local Venture Centre and enabling us to support local people and families who are suffering financially. The project aims to provide a 6 week programme of support whereby people in financial difficulties attend and participate in weekly healthy, budget cooking sessions. Alongside this they also receive advice and guidance to tackle the root cause of their financial issues from partner organisations including Wolverhampton City Credit Union, local housing providers, family budget sessions, mental health awareness, into work support and confidence building. Each week the person takes home the ingredients to provide them with a weeks’ worth of meals and returns the following week, with pg. 6 DocuSign Envelope ID: 848AACF9-2F6F-4CAE-A277-8763F0334846 APRIL 2020 – MARCH 2021 the aim being, that at the end of the 6 weeks we have tackled financial issues that are preventing that person or family improving their own quality of life. As Covid-19 hit this immediately prevented us from delivering the face: face sessions within local community hubs and with many of the BHCAG volunteers now isolating we had to find a different way of delivering this project. We therefore partnered with Big Local Venture Centre whose volunteers worked alongside our volunteers to ensure the project was delivered. This was done by taking weekly food parcels to those most in need and providing guidance on what could be cooked using those ingredients. Alongside this and with support from the Women and Family Resource Centre we also provided weekly telephone calls and telephone counselling to those struggling and in need of extra support. **Delivering Winter Warmth:** In Winter of this year BHCAG secured some grant via Wolverhampton City Council to deliver the Winter Warmth programme to local people in need across the area. This grant enabled us to provide items or financial support to people to ensure they could keep warm and fed throughout winter. The support we provided ranged from topping up gas/electric, through to providing food, duvets and coats. This scheme proved invaluable and we collaborated with our WV10 Consortium partners to both deliver the programme and lever in additional resources. **School Uniform Drive:** For the third year we have been able to provide our tenants children with a free school uniform. This was delivered in a slightly different way this year with the focus on tenants who were struggling financially due to the pandemic and delivered alongside other services provided including the Life after the Foodbank and Winter Warmth initiatives. We will continue to look for new ways to deliver this service going forward. **Mini Bus:** The minibus secured last year has been instrumental throughout the pandemic, it has been used daily to deliver services to isolated families and vulnerable older people and I think it is safe to say that everyone around the area now recognises our bright green bus! **Neighbourly:** BHCAG have become members of the neighbourly organisation, this organisation puts charities like ours in touch with supermarkets and other big companies with the aim of any surplus goods they may have being donated to the charities for use in the community. We are pleased to say that we have now secured a surplus collection once a week from Lidl and three times a week from Sainsbury’s. The surplus goods are collected and distributed to our tenants that are in the most need of them and compliments our partner organisations services. pg. 7 DocuSign Envelope ID: 848AACF9-2F6F-4CAE-A277-8763F0334846 APRIL 2020 – MARCH 2021 B **ushbury Hill Community Action Group Accounts 01 April 2020 – March 2021** |**Income**|**£**| |---|---| |**Grant Funding**|| |Grant Funding|£39,545.00| |Donations|£54.00| |**Sub Total Grant Funding**|**£39,599.00**| |**Income Total**|**£39,599.00**| |**Expenses**|**£**| |Bushbury Buddies|£34,254.00| |CCLORS Expenditure|£3,073.00| |Strawberry Patch Maintenance|£417.00| |Travel Epenses|£594.00| |Uniform Drive Costs|£2,653.00| |Volunteer Expenses|£32.00| |Printing Postage, Stationary|£318.00| |Room Hire|£2,700.00| |Sundry Expenses|£26.00| |Mini Bus Costs|£1,432.00| |Depreciation on Mini Bus|£2,485.00| |**Total Expenses**|**£47,984.00**| |**Deficit for the period**|**-£8,385.00**| pg. 8 Docusign En¥ÈlopÈ ID". 848AACFg-2F6F-4CAE-A277-8763F0334846 Notes tothe Accounts: None to report. pg.9 DocuSign Envelope ID: 848AACF9-2F6F-4CAE-A277-8763F0334846 APRIL 2020 – MARCH 2021 ## **Signed by and on behalf of the Board of Trustees for Bushbury Hill Community Action Group: -** |**Name**|Diane Lewis| |---|---| |**Position**|Chair| |**Date**|31.01.2022| |**Signature**|| |**Name**|Karen Williams| |---|---| |**Position**|Trustee| |**Date**|31.01.2022| |**Signature**|| pg. 10